What will also make a huge difference is the kind of music your're playing or listening to. The Mahler 2nd Symphony is scored for a full orchestra w/organ, and a full chorus. During the finally, the 5th movement, you've got 200 plus people banging, sawing, blowing, screaming - ol' Gustav new his stuff...and it is LOUD. If you ever get a chance to hear it live, just do it, whether you like classical music or not. It is stupendous.
However, music like recorded EDM, while not necessarily louder, has more energy because it has been highly compressed - it is uniformly loud. In mathematical terms, it has more area under the curve, a concept I'm certain Steve will be thrilled to explain. That's also why any additional compression you might add with an outboard processor should be done moderately - the heat the speaker has to dissipate goes up.